I. Field
The present invention relates generally to information tracking in a network environment, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for sampling usage information from a pool of terminals in a data network.
II. Description of the Related Art
Data networks, such as wireless communication networks, have to trade off between services customized for a single terminal and services provided to a large number of terminals. The distribution of content (data) to a large number of terminals (subscribers) is a complicated problem. Therefore, it is very important for network administrators and content providers to understand how well services are being provided over the network and how terminal users are utilizing the provided services.
Typically, network tracking systems monitor terminal interaction with a network server. For example, terminal users may contact the server to download applications, make content selections, answer survey questions, or to request any other type of service. The server may then track these requests to monitor what services are being delivered to users and to get some idea of user satisfaction from survey results.
Unfortunately, monitoring terminal usage at the server from terminal requests may not be very accurate and does not provide all the information that network administrators and content providers would like to have. For example, the server is limited to obtaining information from only those terminals that contact the server, and so information about non-requesting terminals may not be obtained. Additionally, the types of information that can be obtained may be limited. For example, the server may be able to determine what content is being delivered, but may not be able to determine how efficiently the content was delivered or how the content is being used at the terminal. Furthermore, current systems may not be able to gather information from the same terminals over a selected time period so that historical data can be assembled. Finally, the system may not protect the identity of the terminals it monitors so that the privacy of the terminal user may be at risk.
Therefore, what is needed is a usage tracking system for use in network environments that operates to track how well services are provided to one or more terminals and to monitor how terminal users utilized those services, so that network administrators and content providers can understand how such services may be improved. The system should operate to allow tracking of targeted groups of terminals so that historical usage data can be easily obtained. The system should also operate to protect the identity of the terminals and their users so that user privacy is maintained.